Green Giant Debuts New National Ads, First in 6 Years, With ‘Corn Kid’

Green Giant, a century-old brand with a globally recognized mascot, comes out of advertising hibernation with its first national campaign in six years, using a precocious internet-famous child to launch a new tagline and product.

The beloved Jolly Green Giant, with his trademark “ho, ho, ho” catchphrase intact, also makes an appearance. But it’s only his comically oversized, computer-generated hands that come into view.

Green Giant and its agency GYK Antler blended the numerous competing interests into a campaign under the marketing banner “That’s Giant,” featuring a new product called Dino Veggie Tots, the brand’s iconic spokescharacter and Tariq, an adorable 8-year-old known as “Corn Kid.”

The balancing act—drawing on the brand’s legacy while updating it with contemporary personalities and trends—was a delicate one, per Cristin Barth, creative director at GYK Antler.

“A lot of thought went into the hierarchy of messaging for the work—each element serves equally important purposes,” Barth told Adweek. “We often see heavy-handed approaches to bringing heritage brands into the current zeitgeist, and in this particular case, we felt like less was more.”

The Giant himself, celebrating his 100th birthday in 2025, was key in all the discussions. Barth said: “It wasn’t a question of if the giant would make an appearance. It was a question of how.”

The brand wanted to make sure the mascot “was leveraged in the right way,” according to Steven DeFrino, director of brand marketing, frozen and vegetables at Green Giant’s parent company B&G Food.

“As we talk to consumers, we hear that they still gravitate to the giant,” DeFrino told Adweek. “We wanted to do him justice and make sure he didn’t show up too cartoony.”

And casting Tariq, whose “contagious, wholesome energy and genuine enthusiasm for veggies is impossible to ignore,” helps target the millennial mom demo, Barth said.

An OG plant-based brand

“That’s Giant” is the brand’s first major push since 2017, when Deutsch shepherded its advertising in the wake of B&G Foods’ acquisition of the company from General Mills. 

After a few agency shuffles in the subsequent years, Green Giant chose Boston-based GYK Antler for its agile size and collaborative skills, DeFrino said.

The focus under the B&G Foods ownership has largely been on R&D and product innovation, with the brand latching onto current food trends—found anywhere from fine dining to quick-service restaurants—and studying consumer behavior pre- and post-pandemic. 

Green Giant has rolled out product lines like riced vegetables and restaurant-style side dishes, mostly with digital and retail efforts from GYK Antler, to meet shoppers who are cooking more meals at home.

The time was right to vault back into broad-based marketing with the new kid-friendly Dino Veggie Tots and more restaurant-style SKUs, DeFrino said, especially since the brand can lean into its OG status while plant-based products continue to be a buzz-worthy topic.

Not a one-hit wonder

This isn’t Green Giant’s first partnership with Tariq, who waxed poetic about an ear of corn on Recess Therapy last summer and launched a million memes. The brand worked with the grade-schooler around the holidays, with Tariq helping to develop veggie-centric recipes and presiding over a donation of 90,000 cans of product to City Harvest in New York.

Tariq also appeared on the Today Show as a Green Giant ambassador and rode on the brand’s float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The exposure resulted in 2.5 billion earned media impressions during the holiday period, per the brand.

And though there’s an ephemeral nature to viral stardom, Tariq has grown his fan base since his initial break into the public consciousness. He now has 1 million TikTok followers, and he’s pursuing an acting and voiceover career.

He stars in one of the ads for “That’s Giant,” dressed as a dinosaur and gobbling up Green Giant’s new finger food. The spot emphasizes convenience and fun since consumers are looking for more ways to incorporate veggies into their diets without it feeling like a chore, DeFrino said.

GYK Antler dropped behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot, where Tariq plays the commercial director, and a second spot focusing on the elevated restaurant-style veggies. Though the Jolly Green Giant is only partially visible in the campaign–sneaking a Dino tot and grating parmesan onto beans–there’s talk of revealing more in 2024, with DeFrino promising yet another new incarnation of the character.

The campaign will run on connected TV, social and digital platforms, with in-store marketing also planned.